Wisher Revised
by Jitterzkitty
Summary: Holly and Foaly suffer from sleepless nights. Their dreams filled with the voice of a tiny creature in need of help. The last genie, Wisher, needs them. But what looks to be a simple rescue mission turns out to be so much more. The revised version.
1. Chapter One: No Sleep

Foreword: Hello all who still check on this and new people who I hope will eventually stumble upon this. I started Wisher all the way back in 2008, and I do feel bad for making you all wait for updates, fixes, and most importantly, more story!

Disclaimer: I do not own Artemis Fowl or it's characters. I do own Wisher and other non-official characters used in this story.

**Chapter One: No Sleep**

**Holly Short staggered through the deserted streets of Haven City. The buildings that still stood stuck out of the rubble like tomb stones. There was no signs of life aside from the echo of her footsteps, the normal buzz of life was gone. From the artificial sun that hung over head dripped a glowing liquid that fell like rain around the once strong and healthy captain. Holly looked up at the failing sun as her knees buckled beneath her and she collapsed to the dust covered ground. Was it the world that was flicking to darkness around her or was it just the artificial sun, she could not tell. **

'I'm all alone...' the thought echoed through her unfocused mind. Her damaged ribs pressing against her lungs wouldn't allow her to speak. 'It all happened so fast', she thought, 'first Foaly, then Artemis, then Root...' They were all gone. Just as she was about to lose hope, a voice reaches her ears. It sounds far away, but calming. Almost hauntingly familiar.

"Holly, it's time to wake up."

**Holly's Apartment**

Holly's eyes slowly flickered open. The new artificial night sky poured into her window causing her room to be a calming blue. After a brief moment of staring at the ceiling, she rolled out of bed and headed for her bathroom. Her crew cut had begun to grow slowly out, two slightly longer strands on either side of her face were growing quicker than the rest.

Haven city was mostly quiet at night now that the people had adjusted to Foaly's new system. The centaur had lost his love, Caballine, over a fight about his long hours working at LEP. His heart was broken, but he poured it into his work instead of dwelling on it. The end result was his current project; an above ground environmental emulator system. The people of Haven could now enjoy new smells and sleep cycles. The stink of troll rear and mold had finally been replaced with the sweet smell of an Ireland. An above ground day cycle was put into act shortly afterwards. During the day time, it was bright and warm, during the night it was cool and dark. The temperatures changed with the seasons and much to Mulch's displeasure Foaly was working on getting snow and rain to work. Holly warned him not to bug Foaly too much about it and for once he listened. Winter was coming for above ground, and now for below. It was odd to see some of the people wrapped up for warmth for once.

After a hot shower and a fresh change of clothes Holly walked to her closet and pulled an overly large jacket from its box. It was worn and reeked of its former owner. She wrapped up tightly in it as she left her apartment and headed for Foaly's home. She knew he would be awake at this hour, they both were having the same problem. Sleep had been hard to come by for the pair. They had met the day before and played cards till one of them passed out. As she walked, Holly's mind wandered away from the cold biting at her ankles. It had been several years, if she counted the three she was gone for.

Haven at night brought sadness sometimes, but it's beauty was unmistakable.

The old jacket was doing its best to fight back the cold as it gave forth memories to the tired captain. It was doing its best to protect her as its previous owner had. She placed a hand over the jacket's name label. It was a feeling that they were all getting these days. Missing the jacket's owner. With a sigh, Holly climbed the ramp up to Foaly's home.

The centaur had just dozed off on his keyboard when Holly knocked on the door. After a brief moment of waiting, Holly took the liberty of opening the door with her spare key. She had demanded one from him after their midnight card games lasted over two weeks. Foaly was snoring as his screen blinked for attention, wanting the latest number for a weather formula. Holly eased the door closed, shutting out the cold breeze. Her friend only shifted his shoulders in reaction to her entrance. She wondered how her four legged friend could navigate his maze of a home. Boxes marked "gadgets" scattered the floor and piled up against the walls. Papers and data chips crowded flat surfaces, his bed was covered in notes and books, and his kitchen was unnoticeable unless you looked closely enough to spot the fridge. Holly made her way to the bedroom and pulled a spair blanket from under the bed. Almost tripping over a empty box of carrot juice, she placed the blanket over Foaly's shoulders. He didn't wake from his dreams as she gently leaned him back in his chair, so he wouldn't drool on the keyboard. The shelf across the room caught her gaze and she wandered over to it. It held several framed photographs and memorable items. There was one of Foaly winning an award for an invention, one of the OPs booth, and another of three familiar faces. Holly felt her breathing slow as her fingers gently lifted the photo as if it was made of glass. It was taken a long time ago, when the three of them were too exhausted from work to care. Holly was sitting on the floor of the OPs booth watching and laughing as Root held Foaly in a head lock, ruffling his hair. Foaly, of course, was protesting and trying to get free. It was one of the rare moments where they acted as friends outside of work. She stood watching the photo. As if it would come alive at any second and they would be back at that time. The good old times...

In his dreams, Foaly wasn't surrounded by the many floating carrots he usually dreamed of. Instead he found himself in a stock white setting. There was no real indication of horizon or sky and noise seemed to be muffled by some unseen force. He wasn't even in his normal lab coat, instead he was wearing some sort of winter clothing.

"This isn't how my dreams normally go. What gives?" He asks out loud to himself. "Hello, floating carrots? Where'd you go?"

Now bored of the stock white and lack of carrots, Foaly began to walk in no particular direction. After a while of finding no one, he stopped walking and wondered if the "ground" was okay to sit on.

"Foaly." says a quiet comforting voice.

"Wha?" he says and quickly turns around to face the voice. His eyes widened at the sight.

Hovering not two inches from his nose was a tiny cloaked figure. It had six pixie like wings that barely had to move to keep the figure aloft. It's body resembled a domestic house cat, but with a stretched out tail and interesting eyes. The whites of the eyes were a pitch black while the iris were blue, giving off the sense it was blind. As it watched him, a word seemed to come to his mind...

"W...Wisher?" He said, weary of what would happen. To his surprise, it nodded.

"Find me, Foaly." It said, showing a deep sadness. "I'm in danger... please, find me."

Foaly was beginning to drift out of his dream, but he was unaware he was speaking in his sleep. Holly had turned to face him, still holding the photo. She had a look of shock on her face. Sure, they had often talked about their dreams, but neither ever mentioned the creature that invaded both their sleep before.

"You know it too?" was all she could say.

**Fowl Manor**

Autumn leaves were falling around the large castle like home. The moon shown in through Artemis' window when ever there was a break in the cloud cover. Artemis stretched out his spine while watching his computer screens. He was waiting for a message from a contact in China about a lab kit for his younger brother. When the screen remained unchanged, he got up and went to find something to drink. Once he was out of the room though, the mouse seemed to come alive. It moved the curser over the internet browser and the keyboard joined in on the haunting as it typed in words without fingers attached. When the keyboard was done, the mouse moved the curser one final time and clicked "search". Artemis returned just in time to spot the page finishing loading. Curious and wondering of a hacker, he walked over and looked at the screen. At first he thought it was some kind of cruel joke, that the page he was seeing couldn't be real. He placed his glass down and scrolled along the page. His eyes weren't deceiving him on what the page showed.

WISHER. The last genie on the planet. Only one of its kind, now for auction. For more info, click here.

Artemis clicked. He was taken to a web page that seemed hastily put up. Sitting down in his chair, he began to look more closely at this new problem. If it was a real genie, then it would be important to the fairies of LEP. He was not prepared for what he found next, a live video feed of the promised genie. What he saw sent a chill down his spine...

The small creature sat in a corner, it's head resting against the wall as its tiny paws hung loosely on the chain that was attached to the collar around her neck. She was small enough to be a house cat, but what made her valuable was the six wings that spread from her back. Each gave off a crystal like reflection in the light but seemed as flexible as cloth. They seemed fairy like in shape. Her eyes were covered by a bandage, but it was clear she was watching the camera. Her paws ran over the same loop repeatedly as her long thin tail twitched back and forth slowly. Her once white fur was covered in small faded red splotches. 'Blood' thought Artemis, 'It is being hurt by those restraints.' He couldn't watch the feed anymore, he opened a channel in which to contact Foaly in Haven.

Inside her mind, Wisher could feel the cold steel that had kept her there for so long. Her focus wasn't on that anymore though, it was tuned into the unknown spaces around her. She felt someone else come nearby, fly over, and keep going. Another one of her kind, a mythical creature, an elf. It had been weeks, months, even years since she had seen one of her own kind. Still she did not give up hope, she could feel them through their hearts. Her kind often granted people's deepest wishes, and sensing their hearts became a natural trait of her kind. The wishes of her current owner were like poison to her. He desired fame, glory, and he was making sure he got them. Pain and sorrow had filled her heart and clouded her judgment, but now she had hope. She had found two others she could contact, even if it was only through their dreams. She had learned their names, who they are, where they are, and what pains them. Wisher looped her paw around the steel once more, then sat back gingerly. The two people who she wasn't even sure they knew she existed, were now her only hope... Her heart sank as the huge door to her cell began to open, her human captor had returned.


	2. Chapter Two: Throwing A Turnball

**Chapter Two: Throwing a Turnball**

**Foaly's Home Office**

Artemis sat back in his chair as he watched Holly and Foaly on the screen in front of him. It would seem they were both having similar dreams that included the genie that he saw earlier. When he showed them the footage, he could see surprise in Foaly's eyes, and anger in Holly's. After all this was yet another creature they had avoided their detection, and it was now in trouble. Holly stood with her arms folded over the label of her jacket and scowled at the footage as it ended. Artemis already knew who the owner of the jacket was. Commander Julius Roots. He sighed and pretended not to have noticed.

"So, what do you think?" He asked them.

"Isn't that a bit strange, I mean, as far as I know... computers don't surf the Internet on their own and find things we didn't even know really existed." Holly said, looking over the printed information about Wisher.

"Seems too convenient to me," Foaly said, "Why would this just fall into our laps?"

"Well, you did say it was in trouble, and to find it." Artemis said, "maybe it just has a better touch at computers then you do."

With that Foaly began to chew Artemis out. He knew he had to get Foaly thinking straight, which was difficult these days. Once he had settled down, he seemed more awake to the current situation.

"Sorry old friend, I know you're the best." Artemis said, trying not to sound too strange. "But I need you both to think hard about this. It's another case like before. A human has a magical creature and is trying to sell it to make a profit."

"Seems to be a pattern with mudmen." Holly said under her breath.

"I honestly think this is a trap, and that this poor genie is the bait." Artemis said.

"Whether it is bait or not, we have to do something. Just from that video I fear what it's neck will look like under those chains." Foaly said.

"What will LEP do to help with this?" Artemis asked. Ever since the lemur, he's felt more akin to the small furry creatures. Seeing one like it in pain made his stomach do back flips.

"They're are busy with a troll that escaped, I don't think they will help us much." Holly said.

The trio went quiet for a while, thinking to themselves. It wasn't something new for them, having no back up from LEP. It had happened several times before and they had managed to pull through. As before though, they know how dangerous one human can be once they trap themselves a fairy. They had to factor in that two of them felt like zombies at the moment, and that Artemis was under the watchful eye of Butler and his younger brothers. Taking a trip topside to deal with it themselves would take at least a week to authorize, since it would be a non-LEP operation. Again, no biggie. What Artemis said next made both Foaly's and Holly's stomachs churn and hearts skip a beat.

"Why don't you two sleep together?" He said, not looking up from his papers.

"What?" Holly blurted.

"Ack, I meant-! Not like that!" Artemis said, realizing his mistake a little too late.

Holly was about to verbally punch Artemis in the face when Foaly spoke up.

"What mud boy here is saying that he thinks we can link dreams, a common practice in other parts of the world. Since our dreams contain the same genie, she might be able to speak to us and give us a heads up on what is going on. In order to have such a linked dream state, we would need to be within a close proximity of each other, thus allowing our subconscious minds to connect." He said all in the same tone, without looking up. He already seemed half asleep and was only speaking information.

" Correct." Artemis said. "Holly, why don't you escort Foaly to your place? I can only see mounds of mechanical stuff behind you. I myself should retire for the night."

"Good idea." She agreed and placed a hand on Foaly's shoulder.

"I'll email you guys what I've found so far and you can view it once your both on your feet again. Good night you two." He said, and once they said their good byes he closed the link.

Foaly almost fell over right then and there. Holly grabbed him under the arm and looped one of his over her shoulder.

"Come on, no sleeping yet." She said, helping him get up and grab a jacket.

"Do we really need to go to all the way to your place?" He mumbled.

They both briefly looked at his home, then agreed there was nowhere to rest.

The walk back seemed to be taking a while Holly thought. No, it's only because Foaly has four feet and three are asleep. No other reason. Haven was beginning to turn a soft crimson as the artificial sun started to demand dawn. Holly tried to focus on the way home, that's all she had to do she kept telling herself. Yet with a sleep deprived mind and the effort to carry her friend, her mind took the time to run around without her control. 'I do miss him... We all do...' Her head lowered as she unlocked her front door. 'We need him...'

Holly's apartment was small, but still comfortable enough. She moved Foaly to the couch and positioned him on the couch the best she could. He would have a kink in his back when he woke, but not that he would mind too much for the sleep he'd get. Holly went to the kitchen and turned on her laptop. She sent a message to Commander Trouble Kelp, saying that her and Foaly badly needed some time off to deal with personal sleep issues and their "fowl" moods. She sent the message and got a drink from her fridge. After chuckling about the 'sleep issues' he would let them have the time off, recognizing her choice of words for the last part. After checking up on Foaly, who was contently drooling in his sleep, Holly went to her own bed. Exhaustion swept over her body the moment she spotted her pillow. She was out before she hit the sheets.

When Holly opened her eyes next, she was not in her room. Instead she was standing in a vast field of grasses. The moon hovered over head, seeming rather larger than normal. Although it looked peaceful, it had an uneasy feeling about it. She soon spotted Foaly galloping over to her, but before she could greet him he pinched her cheek.

"Ouch!" She responded, and rubbed the spot. "Wait, what?"

"Exactly what I thought. It's a dream Holly! But it seems we can feel pain." He said.

"That's strange..." She said.

"Yeah, gives me a creepy feeling." Foaly said.

"I find it comforting..." said a tiny voice behind them.

They both turned to see Wisher sitting in the grass, watching the moon. She looked free of her bonds and her white fur had its glint back. Soft blue runes skittered along her paws and her tail. Holly leaned over to touch her, but Foaly gently touched her shoulder to stop her.

"Wise move, Foaly." She said, not looking away from the moons. "I would love to feel a friendly stroke on the fur... but I need to concentrate on here. Now. Besides, Neither of us would feel it."

"Ah..." They said, and took a step back. It was a moment before they began to speak.

"Who are you? Why have you not said a thing before? Where are you?" They began to ask, each for their own questions.

"I'm Wisher, the last genie. I haven't had the strength or hope... I thought everyone else was dead or didn't care. I don't know where I am. I'm owned by this human, my gem was sold to him from a miner who did not know what he possessed. He comes, wishes his demands, and if I don't grant them, he beats me. If I behave and do as he says, then I get to have a glimpse of the moon..." She said, her voice growing quiet at the end. "He never lets me rest long..."

Holly knelt beside her, and spoke as calmingly as she could. "Wisher, we need to be able to find you to help. Isn't there some way?"

Foally watched the two whisper and he looked at the moon. "Err, guys? The moon is fading."

"He's coming!" Wisher yelped. "He must know, he always knows!" She leaps to her feet, but didn't run. Instead, she leaped into Holly's arms. "Please... Find Me!" Holly hugged her close, gently. "I promise we will, Wisher. Just hold on." The dream and wisher seemed to melt away. They were placed back into their own minds for their own dreams. They slept the rest of the night, their bodies too tired to wake and chat about what just happened. Commander Trouble Kelp poked about his office, 'I want to sleep in too...', he thought.

Wisher felt pain before she knew she was awake. He had stunned her again. She sat up the best she could, and shivered when she heard the voice.

"Good morning ticket." His pet name for her, his golden ticket... "I've got a new wish, lucky you."

"..." She kept her silence. He said his wish, and she gasped. "N..No..." She couldn't do that. How could she? But she was bound by fairy rules themselves to obey her master's wish. But... Such a wish would put Holly and Foaly in danger. All of Haven would be in danger. She had no choice... He would start to beat her soon if she delayed any more. She stood on unsteady feet to command the wish true.

"I want someone just like me, only of your kind, to come and aid me with my plans!" He had laughed harshly as she stood. "You know more fairies then me, so pick. And pick wisely!"

She chose, and felt the pains of commanding a wrongful wish. For of all the people she could of summoned... Turnball Root, was the only choice she could see.


	3. Chapter Three: Too Many Grins

**Chapter Three: Too many Grins**

Turnball felt his gut heave in his sleep. He knew it was the prison food, it often sent his stomach churning. Although his breathing was slow and his body was limp, his mind was always racing on how to get revenge. It seemed to be the only thing that fueled his want to live. What he felt next surprised him though. Something small and fuzzy was poking him right in the eye! He grunted and sat up. Wisher rolled off his chest, trailing her chain behind him. He was inside some sort of new cell but it stunk of blood. He looked down at the small creature but couldn't recognize what it was. It looked up at him with a sad expression, had he rolled onto it while it was sleeping? What was with that look?

"Ah, he's awake. Check him for me. Do a good job, Ticket." A human voice said, from a speaker system. Turnball could see the camera mounted on the wall turn to face him.

Wisher took a step towards Turnball, he could sense that whatever this "ticket" was it did not want to go near him. He picked himself up off the floor, and dusted his prison uniform off. He was in fact several decades younger now, and had some of his magic back. The price of being so weary and unfocused, a wish turns into more then what you bargained for. He flecked his arms, feeling his youth's power. Wisher had retreated to her corner, looking at the camera, one name leaping into her scared mind. If the human had forgotten to turn the life feed off, maybe she had a chance. She had to take it! "A...Artemis!" She yelped loudly. Turnball turned and looked at her quickly, how did she know that name?

The boy nearly leapt from his chair. He had a second screen set up to watch over her, but he never expected to hear his name be called. He turned his chair to look, and swallowed hard. Turnball had the Root look to him, but he seemed oddly younger. Artemis had read his file in his spare time. Holly was going to spit fire when she saw this. Turnball had began to yell at Wisher, he looked to kick her, but then looked back at the camera and grinned wide. The human noticed the live feed was still on, and quickly shut it down. This small clip was what Holly would see when she woke.

Foaly lifted his head groggily from the pillow. He hadn't had such good sleep like that in months. He lifted his head enough to see he was in Holly's apartment. With a grunt of effort, he stood up and stretched. Great, Holly wasn't up yet. Now who could he chatter to about what he saw. ... Artemis! The mud boy who was always there.

Holly woke soon after Foaly had left. She noticed the note he had left her on the table.

"Gone to talk to mudboy about the dream, will let you know what we come up with."

She was surprised when she was called to go meet with them to discuses something new. Holly put on the jacket and ran to Foaly's.

The screen was frozen to the moment the feed was cut. Turnball stood grinning over the small creature, foot in mid-kick. It was easy to spot the small red rim already formed under the creature's chained neck. She lay on her side, frozen in the moment of fear before impact. Holly refused to look at the image any longer, she knew Turnball was back. Their time was now cut short. Foaly had decided to not tell Trouble, cause if they did, then they would all be in trouble. They could only imagine what was occurring beyond the shut down cameras...

Mulch barged in through Foaly's door, food in one hand and a gigantic drink in the other. He stopped once he noticed the serious mood and quickly finished off his breakfast. Holly quickly filled him in on the situation. He had two choices, help or promise to shut his mouth about any of this. He chose to help.

"Maybe if we do a sweep of the area where the video is coming in from, we can pinpoint where they are, snatch Wisher, and be out before Turnball or the human sees." said Mulch, who had now joined the think tank. "Then alert Trouble?"

"Your forgetting the huge chain that is holding our target there. Besides, I don't think she could take a trip underground with you." Foaly said, locating the video feeds home via his own computer.

"Maybe Mulch could dig her out and hand her to me, and I fly her home." Holly said.

"Yes, but your all forgetting the human and Turnball. Now that the poor creature has said my name, it's no doubt they are expecting us." Artemis said, keeping a low tone for the morning hours.

"Artemis, Turnball Root has been in prison. How could he know of you?" Holly said, looking to Mulch.

"Captain... Everyone knows Artemis down here now." Mulch said, with a molar to molar grin.

"Great." she muttered, just great...

Their final plan seemed simple. Turnball knew Holly, so she would distract him and the human. Mulch would dig a hole to free Wisher and then hand her off to Holly once she was done being the distraction. The next part, Foaly didn't like. He would have to pilot a shuttle for their quick invisible get away. Personally.

"Can't we just have someone else-" Foaly began but was cut off.

"Foaly, we're on 'vacation' right now for our sleep. I don't think Trouble would really like it if he heard what we were really up to." Holly said, giving him a look.

Foaly sighed and allowed them to continue planning. For some odd reason, he felt edgy about going above ground on the day of the plan...

Turnball held the weapon in his hands, looking up at the human before him. Jon was a large man, and wide. For a moment he wondered how they could make a suit for someone of Jon's girth. He let that thought slip away, as he focused on the job at hand. According to Jon the genie that summoned him could just as easily send him right back, and in worse condition. He would just have to play along till this human was satisfied. After all, it wasn't every day one could go fairy hunting. Somehow this Jon person knew that some special forces of the fairy kind would be coming to take Wisher back, but he pushed even further to say it would be a small group and friends of this Artemis person.

"Make sure you pick off the weak first, they will slow down the party even further. Just like a herd of dear. The wolfs wound the weakest first, and the rest have to wait for them or leave them behind." Jon said, with a nasty grin.

As a nature photographer, he took sick pleasure in watching animals be hunted and eventually killed. His home was filled with such photographs. Some were very up close and graphic. Turnball was reminded of Julius hunting him, his own brother. Although a mad man he was, time in prison did leave a hole inside him when he heard of his brother's demise. Whether if it was because he was dead or because he did not personally get to kill him, Turnball couldn't decide.

"Now go, I will be the bait." Jon said, still with his sick grin. "Take out as many as you can, we can't let them steal Ticket." He pressed his fingers together with a joyful attitude. Where there was one fairy, there was bound to be more.

"Of course now, mud man. There would be no fun to the hunt if they did." Turnball said, and went to his specific location to wait. Any who did cross his views wouldn't have time to think twice about it. He settled down into the bushes and positioned himself for the wait. It would take the shuttle a little time to reach where they were. He began to wonder why he never heard of one of Wisher's kind being real before.

It didn't take Holly long to get a shuttle for them to use, her reputation as the crazy female officer of LEP still resounded throughout the area. The shuttles were still small, so Foaly and Mulch had to cram together in the back seating area. For a moment, Holly felt free of her worries as she piloted the ship up the magma flare. Then she remembered what was once lost in such a fiery pit they were now coming out of. She didn't seem to know how to get that event out of her mind. Mulch took notice of the mood shift.

"Foaly... There's something I've been meaning to tell you." He said, leaning even closer to the uncomfortable centaur.

"If it's you get sick on these things, please don't tell me now." Foaly said, looking worried that he might get puked on.

"No, it's just... Bwaah! I love you!" He said, wrapping his arms around the started genius's waist.

"Ahh, no! Holly, get him off!" Foaly yelped.

Holly could only laugh as they came out into the nighttime sky. Mulch did love to joke with Foaly, even though it made him mad at him sometimes. Plus it made his favorite LEP officer laugh again.


	4. Chapter Four: Did he Tell You He Loved I

**Chapter Four: Did he Tell You He Loved It?**

The shuttle appeared cloaked in the evening fog, but it was right on time and right in Turnball's cross hairs. He had to shrug himself awake, his legs had fallen asleep from sitting still for so long. A mud man, right about fairy tactics? Couldn't be... Had to be a lucky guess. As soon as the craft landed, the fog swallowed it up. It sat dormant for a while, slowly becoming harder to see. He was about to move when he saw the door open. First out was the convict he knew as Mulch, Root's favorite target, he was underground before Turnball could fix the cross hairs on him. With a quite grunt of frustration, he aimed for the door. Ready for the next. He paused seeing the next person exit.

"Holly..." He muttered under his breath.

LPEP's spitfire of an officer, and his brother's precious pupil. He rested the cross hairs on the base of her neck. She had grown to be a fine looking fairy.

Holly came out only when she was sure Mulch was hidden underground. She didn't want a face full of dirt waste. With a quick look around she judged they had at least three hours till sun rise. She looked to Foaly, he was checking over the ship's controls nervously. He wasn't used to infield work and when he was he was usually well guarded. She walked over and patted his shoulder.

"Calm down and just wait here, ok? We'll be done in no time." She said, with a smile.

Foaly nodded, but said nothing. His gut was a tightened knot with worry. Holly gave his shoulder on more pat, then walked quickly from the shuttle and was gone into the fog. He knew she had cloaked and activated her wings. Foaly walked to the back of the shuttle and pressed a button so the doors could close. Just sit and wait, what could go wrong? Something beeped though, meaning an object was in the way. Guessing it was a bush branch, he moved closer to the exit to see. What he hoped to be a branch was actually the barrel of a gun. Foaly turned several tones closer to white.

"Holly!" Foaly yelped, as he pressed the by-pass button and went for cover. He heard a grunt, and then a bang. Something knocked him clear back to the controls, he almost lost his breath from the impact. It stung like a angry bee, and numbed the area between his shoulder blades. Foaly still wasn't used to actual physical pain, and the feeling over whelmed him. His body ordered a shut down, and he was more than willing to let it. He lost consciousness and slid down to the floor. Turnball entered the shuttle and closed the door. He recognized Foaly from their last encounter, it seemed like centuries ago. His shot had hit the centaur's shoulder bone, stopping the bullet. He'd live, but was bleeding enough to leave traces. Then it dawned on him, the weakest of the group. Turnball quickly dragged the injured tech outside of the shuttle and towards the building. He remembered Holly's wrath when rescuing his brother before, and now he might just have the ticket to keeping the fire fairy at bay.

Underground, Mulch was having his own problems with blood. The ground was riddled with chemicals, and tasted horrible even for him! Film developer and other noxious chemicals. No matter how long it stayed in the ground, it all tasted the same. There were traces of Wisher's blood in several places, it was becoming hard to find which one was the most recent. After all, he didn't want to pop up in the kitchen. After a good bit of searching, Mulch found what he was looking for. Still moist blood stains in the dirt.

"Fowl boy owes me for this, I dislike the taste of blood." He thought to himself, carefully digging a hole up behind Wisher.

Artemis had "borrowed" the feed from the live camera. Instead of putting it out on the internet, it now just was all saved to his computer. He couldn't see where Mulch was reaching out from the floor, but that was the point. In case anyone else might have tapped the feed, they had to be as careful as possible.

Mulch didn't like the taste of the ground here, too many chemicals. Film developer, he would guess if he had to. It all tasted the same after years of digesting it. He honed in on Wisher's scent which was easy mainly because her blood had leaked into the ground. He came up just behind her, so the cameras wouldn't pick him up. He had a live feed to Artemis, who could see everything through the web camera. If they wanted to keep other species under wraps, Mulch would have to get her free without being seen. He could hear that Mulch had succeeded in finding Wisher and making a small enough hole to slip her through, but still they could not be completely certain that she would not panic and run off. Leaving a hand sticking out of the floor.

"Now what?" He hissed. "I can't get out of my hole cause of those dumb cameras."

Wisher stirred at the unfamiliar noise. Mulch thought fast and quickly laid a hand gently against her back.

"Shh, It's a friend. Don't move, we can't be see."

Wisher didn't move again, either she under stood or was unconscious again. Artemis sat back and looked over the situation. Somehow Mulch needed to break the chain, drag Wisher down the hole, and get out without being seen or really heard. He could take down the site so that Mulch would not be seen or recorded, but with Foaly not answering Artemis would have to be his eyes and ears for now.

Holly had scoped the perimeter. This human owned a nice home, two story with a front and back porch area. A pool near the back, and many satellite dishes. It also had several security measures, but something didn't seem right about them. They were all pointed outwards. Something caught the captain's eye and she moved to cover. Turnball was exiting the shuttle and running towards a bush. Suddenly her mind raced, how did he get in the shuttle? Was Foaly alright? How dare he start to take aim at her! Her worry for her friend soon was taken over by an uncharacteristic anger. She had already lost one friend, she wouldn't be losing another so easily. Turnball didn't even have the cross hairs on her when she suddenly disappeared. He was too slow, and now he would pay for it.

"D'Arvit." mumbled Turnball.

He got up quickly and made a dash for the shuttle. Holly had wings, he had his legs. This would not end well.

Jon sat comfortably in his huge arm chair, watching the events take place from numerous hidden cameras. He was getting the show he always wanted. Mysterious creatures of all sorts, battling it out for the prize, a genie. One of their own, wounded and afraid. If Turnball found out that he was made into live prey, then he might try and go after Jon. It was a shame that none of them took notice he was no longer at that location. As soon as the summoned elf had taken to his bush for waiting, Jon was already on the move. Although he sat comfortably several miles away in the center of a largely populated town that loved a night life, he had a tiny voice in the back of his head telling him to worry. The female showed a sudden mood change from the roof, she must of seen Turnball and with a flicker, she was gone. Jon loved it. He loved her. He had a rare collect of live creatures in a zoo which he photographed often, almost all of which were obtained illegally. But when you were rich beyond though, who would question that. Holly to him was a lovely wild creature they he must capture. On photographic paper, and in a cage. He sat forward, watching as his target reappeared behind Turnball a second later. To the look in Turnball's eyes as he spotted her shadow. He grinned wide as another hidden camera got footage of Mulch reaching out of the hole to grab the chain. Jon leaned back in his large chair, suddenly laughing and shouting loudly.

"I love it! I LOVE IT! I LOVE IT! I LOVE IT!" Could be heard throughout the night air around his new home.


	5. Chapter Five: Beating Up And Going Down

**Chapter Five: Beating Up And Going Down**

Turnball never felt the first blow, Holly appeared behind him in an instant and clubbed him in the back of the head with the butt of her gun. Pain exploded through his head causing him to stumble forwards and be temporarily disoriented. That was all Holly needed. She dropped to her feet, she brought her knee up from her side in a quick fluent kick and hit Turnball under his ribcage. The force of the kick caused him to spin, he raised his gun to shoot but the anger fueled captain was too quick. "Oof!" was all he could say as Holly brought her palmed fist slamming down on his Addam's apple. He fell back onto the ground, choking and gasping for air. Holly had her boot down on his chest in an instant, gun aimed at his twisted in pain face.

"How could I have gotten so slow?" He asked himself mentally as he choked and looked up at the captain. "No... when did she become so fast?"

"Mulch, this is a set up. Get out of there as soon as you can." She growled into her ear peice before pulling the trigger.

Mulch heard the warning, but honestly. Could they not do their own parts? He had used mining fluids to cut the chain and had Wisher safely into the hole. She hadn't stirred since he had wiggled her down the hole. To protect her wounds from the dirt and chemicals, he wrapped a cloth around her. He began to carefully close up his tunnel behind him and escape. He talked to Artemis in hushed tones for sneakiness and not to wake Wisher. All he needed was a freaked out creature bouncing around the inside of the tunnel, an inch from his face.

"Sounds like something gone wrong out there. Pony boy isn't answering his calls and Holly is in a hot mood." Mulch said, as he moved a larger rock behind him to continue onward.

"I don't like it either, but I have no eyes and ears outside this camera." Artemis said, pained that he couldn't see what had gotten his friend so upset. Unless... "Mulch, what if this man had set all this up for entertainment?"

"Then he's either really lonely and needs a hug from his momma," he grunted, as he moved back through the tunnel. "Or he's a sick-sick man who needs a good limestone up his bum hole. Why?"

"I feel as though we just put on the best show of someone's life..." Artemis said, feeling his own stomach churn at the thought.

Jon was indeed enjoying every second of footage this hidden cameras fed him. It was a shame though to lose his genie. No matter, he still had the gem stone she resided in. She would soon find it irresistible and return as she always had. She couldn't grant their wishes without it either. So all in all, he had gained something and lost nothing. He smirked and rubbed the gem stone between his large fingers. Yes, soon the world would bow before his amazing video of mythical creatures. ...but what if there were more. As the small one had come, from underground. Jon hopped to his feet, something that took great effort from the large man. That was it! The perfect film! Underground creatures! Amazing cave lighting! He would be famous. But how could he pull it off...

Of course, he had more proof of their existence, they would need to come after him to get it back. Wisher would no doubt lead them right to him. She could always find her way back through the power of the gem. Jon picked up his open and held down a number for speed dial. Time to call in a favor of an old, underground, friend.

Holly had Turnball in cuffs as Mulch ran over to her. Although she could swear he was almost skipping. He was holding a bundle of blankets and was grinning like an idiot. She was in no mood for his antics and set about trying to get into the shuttle. Mulch stood by and waited, he seemed determined to bug her.

"Okay Mulch, what do you have under your blanket?" She sighed, getting nowhere with the lock.

"Only this!" He beamed and gently uncovered Wisher's head. "Got her all cleaned up for you too, since you were busy kicking Turnball here in the gut while he was out."

"Not a word of any of this to anyone, ok Mulch? Not to Trouble, or to anyone else from LEP." She warned him.

"Right right, not a word. You have my promise!" He grinned wide.

"Why do I not believe you?" She muttered.

Foaly felt his world slowly coming back to him. He didn't want to wake up. Although everything around him was numb and muted, he liked it. No LEP runts blaming him for them messing up, no Mulch accidentally digesting a piece of equipment, no Trouble grumbling about budget cuts. But then he noticed no Holly... His good friend, who was always there was missing. With an uneasy breath, he tried to focus on one thing in the room. But he couldn't see anything, it was all dark.

"Sleeping on the job again?" said gruff tones.

"I'm not sleeping Julius... just resting..." He managed to mutter.

"Don't call me Julius! Now get up! The others need you for this. You and your smart brain are going to suffer budget cuts from this! You hear me Pony Boy?" The tones said again, snapping him more awake.

Foaly managed to open his eyes. He was on the floor of the shuttle; an emergency blanket was laid out over him. It took a moment for him to realize what had happened. Turnball must of shot him, and Holly had gotten to him in time with her magic. It took him a moment longer to realize a slight pressure on his chest. The small furry heat source on his chest could only be the target of the whole mission, Wisher. Her breathing was slow and seemed relaxed, she was sleeping too. And the voice... just a hallucination. His focus was broken by something tugging sharply at his ear.

"Ow" he mumbled in protest.

"Oh hey, your alive! Maybe now the good captain will calm down." Mulch said, coming into view. "We almost lost you there! She beat Turnball to a pulp! He's in a drugged sleep, and man does he drool. How was lala land? Any good sights?"

Foaly could only grin a little. Sarcasm. He would live by it and die by it. Mulch butchers it. Wisher was safe, Turnball restrained in the most preferred way possible, and they had all gotten out mostly ok. So what was bugging him... what was he forgetting... He couldn't care, his head was pounding and going back to "lala land" seemed better then staring at Mulch.

"Hey pony boy, don't go back to sleep! Holly will-" he began, but was cut off by Holly.

"He needs rest, so let him rest or I'll make you go to lala land too!" She yelled from the cockpit.

They had no choice now, they would have to inform Trouble of what they were really doing. Holly was somewhat comforted by the fact that they would have Turnball to lessen the blow.

Artemis sat at his desk, ignoring the fact that the sun was slowly rising outside his windows. He was looking for the photographer they had encountered. Jon, that was his name. He was once a high class man, brought down by fate of a bad photo of a Hollywood star. Out of curiosity, Artemis looked up the photograph of the star. She looked fine, except for a glare that caught the lenses and through off the shadows. A beginners mistake had ended his career. No wonder he had snapped. The more Artemis started at the photo, the more he began to worry for Holly and the others. He had a feeling things were not over, and that this was only the tip of the ice berg. Something like this was unlikely to be the whole source of this mad man's story.


	6. Chapter Six: The Forbidden Talent

**Chapter Six: The Forbidden Talent**

Holly was having a fun time explaining to Trouble about their situation. He was furious to say the least, but he was glad to see they got what they had aimed for. If the LEP had ran the operation, it might have been worse. A whole LEPrecon team on camera, it would the Fowl problem all over again. Also tracking the human that had caused this mess would be simple as well. Holly's new friend, Wisher, could pinpoint just where he was and when. He was informed that the human could not do the same to her. He made a mental note to have all fairy records checked for any other "missing" species. They all agreed it would be best to inform the council of Wisher after the whole mess had been cleaned up.

"Holly, I will personally keep an eye on Wisher. You and Mulch are going to be busy with paper work for a while after this." Trouble said, rubbing the bridge between his eyes. "How's Foaly?" Concern sneaking into his words.

"He is resting, he was lucky that the bullet stopped on his shoulder blade. He should be ready for work again in a day or two." Holly reported. "Mulch is keeping him company for now."

"Good, we need him back on his feet as soon as possible. I want a report from Artemis on this Jon guy, he needs to be stopped as soon as possible." Trouble ordered. "Now go get cracking on those papers so we can get some real work done around here."

"Yes sir." Holly said.

Haven was in a lock down mode due to the new threat. Jittery fairies wanting to the surface for vacations and moon dances. It was like when they first had to flee underground, Trouble thought. Holly had left to round up Mulch, and Trouble had gone for a walk. He wasn't alone as he would of liked to be. Wisher sat perched on his shoulder, head low with ears up. She seemed to be resting, so they didn't talk. It didn't seem so long ago that he had walked this path with an old friend and mentor. Those times had passed though, this crisis was his to solve. The usual path through Haven he took was through the less crowded areas. As the hum of civilians fades away, Trouble begins to relax. He had been overly stressed since he took over. Root had left such a rip in the force, they really did depend on him a lot more then Trouble thought. He was slightly startled by Wisher's gently shift of her weight.

"I keep hearing that name." came a soft whisper from his shoulder. "Who was he?"

"He was our good friend and commander for a long time. He died years ago." Trouble muttered, not wanting to talk about it. He figured Holly must have told her about their dead comrade.

"Oh." She said, gently moving her head under his chin and resting it on his collar bone. "It hurts."

Trouble stopped walking and tried to look down at her. "Your wounds? Are you okay?" She shook her head.

"Not my hurt. This place, these people. They hurt." She continued in her quite tone. "Everyone pretends that it doesn't, no way to fix it."

Trouble began to catch on to what she was saying. It wasn't a real surprise for her to notice the still lingering feeling that hung over Haven like a vial, but he was surprised she picked up on it so fast. It wasn't a week or two before this had begun, that the council had rounded up all the higher up officers for sort of a "pep" talk.

"No matter how brave of a face you can put on, there will always be someone who will be able to see that weakness you all seem to now have. Your wearing it like a huge target on your chests! Recon has always been a dangerous job, you all know that. Officers die every day in many ways, so snap out of it. We need to show the people that we are still strong, not a group of weaklings who fall apart once one leader is removed!" said one of the council members.

"Things should be back to normal again, once we get all this mess cleared up. We'll try to find you a home too, with good protection. I hope you'll be ready to answer a lot of questions. We're curious of you." Trouble said with a grin.

Wisher leaned more against his neck. "It's cold."

"I'll get you some warm food once we get back. Holly probably hasn't even offered you anything. She gets so busy sometimes, she'd forget her own head." Trouble said, and started to head back to LEP HQ.

They walked back in silence. It wasn't the calming walk he wanted, but it felt as though something deep within him had started to stir.

Foaly was upset. Not just a little upset either. He was very upset. He was watching something horrible take place before him, that he had no power to stop. That wouldn't stop him from complaining about it though.

"Mulch, will you stop trying to clean?" Foaly shouted at the dwarf.

Mulch had begun the daunting task for cleaning some walking space in Foaly's mess of a home, he was making good progress till Foaly woke up and saw him shoving papers into random boxes and storing them away.

"Oh come on, MY place is cleaner than this! You've got two more legs than me, how can you even move in here?" Mulch protested. He wasn't normally a clean guy, but doing this kept him away from Holly. Who was still slightly upset and now was pinned down by paper work.

The two continued their arguing till Mulch found a picture buried under a massive pile of cables. He recognized it Caballine. Foaly's old flame who ran off. For a moment or two he wondered if he should tease the bed-ridden tech about it, but then thought better of it and hid it in his pocket while shoving another box under the bed. That would be another subject for another time. Right now, he just wanted to continue to aggravate his brainy friend by organizing his unorganized mess.

Trouble placed a bowel of warm soup in front of Wisher before sitting back down at his desk. He watched her for a bit before tending to his paper work. All of Haven seemed so strange to her, and his office wasn't helping the unfamiliarity. He had brought in a cushion for her to rest on, but didn't know what else to do. She said nothing, but seemed to enjoy the soup. Once he saw she was satisfied enough to rest, he began to work again. Paper work always made time seem to go slower, Trouble didn't notice noon come and go. He didn't even notice his head droop and was soon in a light sleep.

A red glow surrounded the sleeping commander, he could feel the heat before he could see his surroundings. They remained blurry for a moment, then in a rush became sharp and crisp. He was standing in the center of a large round room. Flames sitting in bowels on pillars lined the walls, providing warmth and light. The dream was filled with warm tones of red, orange, brown and yellow. It was a strange dream... He looked down at his hands and saw they were cold tones, blues, purples and whites. Another pair of hands gently took hold of his, while he was looking down at them. Looking up he saw a creature that stood a head taller than him with six glowing wings that spread from its back. He went to speak, but found he couldn't. The figure slowly waved it's arm at the surrounding walls, images and pictures covered them. It told a story that made Trouble's blood run cold.

"Simple wishes are granted without consequences." Said a far away voice, echoing off the walls. "Deeper more weighted wishes are granted with unmistaken able consequences."

The figure turned to Trouble, and seemed to begin to fade away. "To bring back one who is so lost, the weight in blood of another must be forfeit. Madness is coming to Haven."

The dream began to fade to darkness. "A madness that craves blood. Red with hate and blood thirst, it turns towards Haven. And it does not come alone."

With a jolt, Trouble woke from his dream and sat up. A cold sweat had covered him during his brief dream, and his heart was racing. He got up and looked over his desk to where Wisher lay. She still slept, not having moved since she first fell asleep. Was it a dream? Worries from being awake pouring into his dreams? Needless to say, he told the others.

Deep in a mining facility, a scientist who specialized in mining was showing off his pride of an invention.

"It's a wonderful invention, don't you think?" said a mining man. "Can burrow as deep as the temperature permits. Those blades are made with a new type of diamond plated steel. Won't break on you, for at least the first twenty years. Even if you were to strike solid bedrock!"

Jon stoked the shiny outer layer of the machine. It was a large drilling machine, it looked like something out of a science horror movie. It was perfect.

"Truly a work of art." Jon said as they finished the inspection. "I'll take it."

"You'll take it? I'm sorry sir, but this is not for sale. I thought you were here to offer funding?" The scientist said.

"I said, I'll take it." Jon stepped to the side, reveling a man wearing a coat and hat. A gun shown out from his coat pocket.

"Wait, you can't! This is only the-" the miner never finished his sentence.

Jon smiled wide. Everything was falling into place. Soon he would find his way back to his ticket and the prize he'd been wanting for so long would be within his grasp. As his goon was taking care of the body and moving the digging machine into place, Jon slipped a paper from his coat pocket.

"Oh my dear... You were so upset, so fragile when the news came of the betrayal of my employers..." He muttered, gently petting the ruined photograph. Just one more paycheck, that's all he would have needed. Just one, but high society tore that away from him. For just the simple fact that the lighting was off! He clenched the photo in his large fists, shaking with rage. But he would soon show them, he thought. Suddenly calming down and petting the photo again. With the blood of hundreds of creatures that no one even knew about, he would show them all. How the struggle for life and death should really be. Not one of hospital beds and machines. He gazed down at the photo of his late wife. The one from the roof had the same eyes, yes. The one from the roof, fast, the beauty of her movements. He would keep that one as the last of her kind.

"Boss, the digger's all prepped and ready to go!"


	7. Chapter Seven: Cold Haven

**Chapter Seven: Cold Haven**

Deep under the earth, the council was making things hard for the LEP. A full shut down of all transports to the surface was out of the question, and although they were curious of the new comer they were not jumping to help. Trouble was ordered to keep what resources he would be using to a minimum and that he still needed to run everything they plan to do past the council. They were already in trouble for doing what they did so far without permission. Most of the transports were canceled though, and Haven was once more filled with angry civilians. They clogged the front of the LEP building. It had been three days since the group he returned with the last genie. Foaly had mostly recovered and was back to work in the OPs booth. Mulch was their only person on the surface at the moment, besides Artemis who was trying to avoid alerting his family while helping. Holly had led a small crack team to set up extra sensors, just in case. The council had ordered for the reasons for their extra involvement was not to be announced to the public. The surface was suffering some strange fall storms. Hot and cold air battled one another to form high wind and rain storms. Mulch sends updates every day, but still no trace of the human yet. Wisher tries to help tell them where she senses him, but it never really helps pinpoint any real location. Trouble rubbed the bridge of his nose, frustration and nerves were running high but now was not the time to give up. They would just have to keep searching and being on guard.

"He wasn't there either? Great. A mudman the size of a small moon has disappeared from our radar completely." Trouble moaned.

"Hey, you know. It's not like we didn't try." Mulch said, shrugging off another fit of shivers.

The dwarf wasn't a pleasant sight. His hair was matted down with visible sheets of water still on his head from running in from the rain. Although his hideaway was pleasant enough, he had run out of towels. His digging jumpsuit was black with dirt literally soaked right into the fabric. He was exhausted, he had an easier time running from trolls then finding this human.

"Listen Trouble, I've looked everywhere a dwarf can go. Inside, outside, underground, and in the walls. He's nowhere in this area! I'm not moving till these storms pass, I have no want to become a fried dwarf from some stray lightening." He said, hacking a cough. The weather and lack of dry clothes was beginning to ebb away his health.

"Alright," the commander sighed quietly. "Hold your position and stay safe. We don't need any more trouble, you hear me?"

"Ah, Trouble. Isn't that what your named for though?" Mulch added quickly before cutting the link. He would need time to rest, and Trouble would be venting till someone stopped him.

It was Foaly's turn to keep an eye on Wisher that day. The three of them were taking turns of watching over her. She say contently in a small pile of blankets in the corner of the LEP Ops booth. Her ears were always perked, listening to what he was doing. He wondered if she could really understand his greatness from the sound of his fingers on the old mudman keyboards. It had been slow work for the past two days. Criminals such as Jon just don't disappear, even more so for ones his size. They had started the search from the first place they encountered him and spread out to the surrounding areas. They had made their way back to the mother land, Ireland. It was very strange weather Mulch was recording, but with all the mud men were doing to the air it wasn't too surprising. They had gotten several leads from Artemis. He was trying to help, the poor boy. Now that his mother knew, she was strict on what he could and couldn't do. Unnecessary travel was one of them. He had offered to use Butler, but a man that size would be too visible. Besides, Jon now knew of Artemis from Turnball. Butler was needed to protect the Fowl family. Foaly stopped typing a moment to rub a sore part on his back. He liked the idea of him spending his days in a new and improved cell. It was a master piece of mental confusion, over time rendering the prisoner harmless. If they were to escape, it would take several days to restore themselves to normal. So far just the colors had Turnball speaking backwards. A ping noise echoed from his computer announcing the end of a process, and Foaly knew Wisher's ears shot up at it. She liked that noise. It was quiet working, even though he had company. He played music to help. He found a funny sing along blog, Dr. Horrible. Not the nicest, but all he could do with his time to look.

"Hey Foaly, any new news?" Holly's voice said over a com link. She was leaving Trouble's office after calming him down. He had been shouting in his office for the past fifteen minutes, it seemed to be a reoccurring event with him lately.

"Not a thing Holly, I can't believe he can hide so well. The human's the size of a small wale!" Foaly said, continuing his search.

"I'm heading to Turnball, maybe we can get something out of him. Keep it up Foaly, I know you'll find him." She said, before going off to work.

'I can always count on her' Foaly thought as he looked up another dead end. Even when he was most depressed, Holly had been there with a box of carrots to cheer him on. He's glad some things hadn't changed.

Wisher had moved from her pile of blankets and sat carefully on the work area. Foaly had helped her find a safe place to sit earlier, after she accidentally stepped on a key and called Trouble while he was in the shower. It's a good thing she was blind. He quietly wondered what kind of weather genies liked...

Holly walked towards the prototype cell. The door itself was see through to them, but to anyone inside it looked like all the other walls. The LEP boys personally designed the inside to make rookies get disoriented and sick to test their focus in extreme situations. It was also being tested as a "calming" cell for more dangerous prisoners. Turnball was restrained to one wall, limbs spread out so he couldn't mess with anything, not that there was much to mess with. His head was resting on his chest when Holly came in and switched off the inside effects. She didn't want to get more of a headache then she already had.

Turnball didn't need to look up to know it was Holly, she was one of the only females to visit him since his return to Haven.

"I bet my brother's death tore you apart." He said. It was his usual conversation for the past two days. Holly knew he was just trying to distract her. She made sure he was well restrained before signaling for the door to be closed.

"Are you going to tell me about this Jon human?" Holly asked once the door was closed behind her.

"He favored you, his precious little female officer. Kept you safe, did he? Even in his death." Turnball wheezed. His throat still ached from Holly's apple punch. "You officers have become stricter here. Reminds me of when I used to be part of the force."

"What did you learn from Jon, Where might he be hiding, What did he say to you?" Holly said, keeping herself distant from that subject.

"You can't hide from this forever captain. Julius is dead, your pinned by another human, your luck has run out. Haven will burn." He never rose his head. Not once. "I wonder how many sleepless nights you've spent wondering how to save him."

"Turnball, answer my questions. Look up when you speak and answer me." Holly said, a hint of anger in her voice.

"Sure missy." He said quietly. "I'll answer your little question."

Holly was surprised, this was something he hadn't said before. Was he honestly going to cooperate?

"Where is Jon, Turnball. We need to find him." Holly said.

"He'll be coming here, as you know. If you want to know how, you'll have to answer one of my questions." He said, head still hanging.

"What question?" She said carefully, this could be just another one of his tricks.

"Do you honestly think you have a chance?" He looked up, his eyes were defiantly different, but Holly couldn't see what it was though. "Can you do this without him?" Could it be a hint of sanity? For some odd reason, they seemed clearer.

"We've handled worse before." She said. "Now how will Jon come, I answered your question."

Turnball's grin spread like a crack across his face. It sent a shiver down Holly's spine.

"By a digging machine, my dear. It churns and whines far above our heads, but soon it will be in town. Shredding fairies instead of rock. He hungers for blood. Haven's weight in blood. Can you stop a monster like that, Captain Short?"

Mulch heaved a sneeze and wrapping up more in his only dry blanket. It had been ages since he had to stay put due to tornado warnings. He knew to avoid them now, and that's just as he planned to do! Wind and rain beat against the side of his room. His beard was feeling strange since he began this search for a madman with a camera high. Even Loafers was better to deal with.

"Weather warnings for the following areas. A fourth tornado has been sighted outside Dublin. Please seek shelter." his radio alerted him.

For all the mud men lacked in, they were getting good at dealing with tornado. They had even begun to build tornado proof homes. Mulch wished he was inside one right now. His beard twitched suddenly, making the dwarf jump slightly. After sitting still and listening, he shrugged it off as an effect of the crazy weather.

Many miles underground, Jon was nearing his target. Wisher's summoning gem could lead him right to her! The best part was that she didn't even know that the gem could work like that. Right to this "LEP" right to "Haven" right to his wish coming true. He gently stroked the gem, grinning like a wolf who's found his sheep.

"Soon my ticket... Soon all the blood, even yours, shall be used for my greater good..." Jon said.

The man driving the digger had began to wonder if the pay he was getting was enough to carry on this madness. He didn't see any harm in digging a man down into the ground, letting him go nuts, and bringing him back up to get the money that was to be set free into his account on a set date. He had shot the builder of the machine, but it was a drugged dart. He would wake in a day or two, not remembering a thing. Well, if he was lucky, he would remember his name. Chop, as his past employer had called him, didn't feel too comfortable with Jon sitting in the back. He was talking to some stone and looked crazy already. 'Blood?' 'Haven?' Yup, mad man. Wouldn't be the first he's worked for, and not the last probably. He had bills to pay. The digging machine halted at a set depth and Chop stretched in his seat. They had reached the subterranean air pocket that his employer wanted to reach. Well, now to open the shield screen and see just what they arrived at.

Foaly nearly jumped from his chair when the alarms suddenly went off. He had thought the rumbling must have just been his stomach, but now he feared something far worse. He noticed Wisher sit up and look around suddenly. She was shaking.

"He is here!" She yelped in fear, diving for some sort of cover but only colliding with Foaly's legs.

It was a patch of their parameter alarms, something was breaking through and it wasn't small. All Haven shook as the last layer of sheet rock fell from above down onto the homes below. Foaly quickly grabbed Wisher and fled from the OPs booth just in time to turn and see a huge slate fall and crush it. Trouble had enough time to escape out into the entrance way before more rock fell and hit the LEP buildings.

"Oh no..." He panted, holding the small creature to his chest.

The digging machine made moaning noises of a monster as it slowly lowered itself from the rock face down into the plaza below. It stopped a few feet from the ground and the front view windows opened. Holly had been running back to the LEP Ops booth when she saw the rock fall, and soon afterwards the digging machine come into view. A pang of fear ran through her. The human had done it, he had broken through to Haven. With the OPs booth down, the weapons in the police plaza couldn't be activated!

Jon grinned from molar to molar as he saw Haven emerge from the dust caused by their entrance. Chop looked out the windows, amazed by what he saw! Who would have guessed any of this existed? The madman spotted Foaly flee from a building just as rocks fell from the dome above and crushed it. The small creature in his arms turned to look at the digging monster. The gem began to glow softly, the connection was reestablished just as Jon had planned it would be.

"Wisher, my dear ticket." Jon said, holding the gem close to his face while petting it. "It's time to put the final act in this wonderful play."

Wisher watched the metal beast, hearing Jon's words as clear as if he was right next to her. She closed her eyes, knowing what horrors were to follow. Foaly noticed her sudden mood change and looked down at her. This could not be good.

"Send these warmth loving creatures into their own ice age, my precious ticket. Bring these people to their knees, burry them in ice and snow so they have no strength to fight back!" Jon tilted his head back, laughing and shouting loudly as drool flowed from the corners of his mouth. "MAKE HAVEN MINE AND MINE ALONE!"

Wisher's wings suddenly throw off a bright light, nearly blinding Foaly. There was a loud roar and a strong wind suddenly. Those who were standing, were knocked back by an instant blizzard! The fairies who were long used to heat of their underground home were sent into shock from the sudden drop in temperature. The humidity in the air instantly turned to snow which was whipped around by the high winds. Their home had become a winter tundra in under three minutes. Foaly and the others who were unfortunate enough to be outdoors were covered in several feet of snow instantly. Holly and Trouble were now the last wall of defense between an armed madman and a defenseless Haven. Haven is falling, and for the first time ever, Haven was dead quite.


	8. Chapter Eight: The Final Wish

**Chapter Eight: The Final Wish**

Chop couldn't believe what he just saw. After finding a thriving civilization, on a command from the raving madman behind him it was turned into a snowy ruin. Ice hung from ever surface, some doorways and windows were sealed completely by it. His employer was grinning like a mad man. Which he must be one. He turned to Chop and motioned him to go outside.

"Find my Ticket!" He roared, holding a stone rightly in his pudgy hands. "Kill those who remain standing!"

Holly bolted for the remains of the OPs booth when she saw Trouble already there digging in the snow. She stopped to help and was surprised to find Foaly and Wisher buried under the snow. A few slaps to the cheek snapped Foaly out of the shock. Holly helped Foaly to his feet while Trouble dug through the snow for any surviving equipment. Wisher was out cold.

"How could this of happened? She said that mud man couldn't follow her here!" Trouble said, checking over his weapons.

"I don't know, maybe there is more to the connection then we thought. There's nothing we can do about that now, we've got a huge digger in the plaza." Holly said, grabbing a gun from the wall. "We just take them out and be done with this."

"Hey, don't run in there without a plan. What if they've got more people in that thing?" Trouble said, turning to Foaly.

"Sorry Trouble, no luck. The whole system smashed to bits, I can't even access any controls for the remaining cannons." Foaly said, hugging his lab coat for warmth.

"Great, how could this get any better?" Trouble growled. On hind sight, Trouble wish he hadn't said that.

Fate loves a challenge and took up Trouble on his offer. The digging machine's front side opened up and an armored mud man stepped out. Trouble hadn't seen something so disturbing since Butler took down their entire squad. This human wasn't so sparing, he pulled a gun from his armored jacket and shot a fairy that was struggling to get free of the snow. Trouble led the group back to the doors of the LEP building, they were still reinforced and offered protection from the human. Jon appeared to be staying within the digging machine as his hired hand was searching for more survivors. Holly nudged Foaly further into their shelter and handed him one of the spare guns.

"The temperature seems to still be going down, we need to start shooting soon or these things are going to freeze." Holly said, checking over her gun.

"Alright, here's what we are going to do. Holly, you go into that thing and find that human while I distract the armored one. Foaly, you and Wisher stay here. If that mud man starts to head towards you, I want you move carefully to new cover." Trouble said before looking over the rubble that sheltered them. "Ready?"

Holly gave a quick nod.

"Wait several seconds to run out." Trouble said, and then leapt from the shelter.

He made quick quite work to get to another pile of rubble to use at cover, then took aim and fired. Chop heard the elf's feet clomping through the crisp snow, and moved just in time to dodge the shot. Chop moved more behind the machine and opened fire on the fairy's hiding spot. Trouble swore and ducked low as chips of rock were blown off. He was pinned down, but at least the big guy was distracted.

Holly waited till the large mud man's focus was on her partner before moving out and sneaking around the long way to the digging machine. Hoping she hadn't been seen, she started to move towards the hatch till she saw the mud man pelting Trouble's hiding place. Holly took a fist full of snow, and waited for her chance.

Chop's gun eventually needed a new clip, and as he began to change them while moving back into cover something hit him on the head. It was a snowball. He looked quickly to where it had came from, but instead of finding the source Trouble had popped back up and shot him three times in the chest and sides. Chop hit the digger hard, several some things cracked, and he fell to the snow below. He started to black out as Trouble came out of hiding and started to head towards him. Two or three ribs were gone, and so was the rest of his contract.

The impact shook the digging machine, alarming Jon that all was not going well. He heaved himself from his chair and looked at his display monitors. Chop was down and another fairy was advancing on him. Jon began his signature grin as he saw the exact placement of where his hired hand had fallen. He hovered his fat thumb over a button and waited.

Trouble hurried over to the large mud man, weapon raised, to find out if he was really down or not. Holly headed over to help, but was just far enough back to see what happened next. Trouble began to give the order to break into the digging machine when a hydrolic powered door suddenly swung open upwardly. The door caught Trouble in the side, flipping him up and over the door to come crashing down on the top of it. The air was knocked from his lungs before he could make any sounds of pain, and the impact sent mind numbing pain shooting throughout his body.

" D'Arvit!" was the last thing Holly said, before disappearing into the machine.

Foaly had been watching from the shelter. He got a whole new reason to shiver, once he saw the commander get flung up in the air, and slam down onto the metal monster. With all the snow and ice, blood was very easy to spot from a distance. Holly had gone around the other side of the machine and Foaly could no longer see her. Wisher was still unconscious in his arms. Suddenly Foaly though it would be nice to be in several places at once. He took off his lab coat and gently wrapped Wisher up in it before setting off in a full gallop to help Trouble.

The way into the digging machine was poorly lit and from what Holly could tell it looked like it wasn't even finished being built. Panels along the wall were missing, wires hung loose without being tired back. Something about the air just didn't feel right. Her instincts were screaming at her to leave the digging machine.

Foaly managed to carefully scale a nearby pile of rubble and catch hold of Trouble's sleeve. He could see the healing sparks from his friend's magic zipping about his wounds in a desperate attempt to heal.

"Trouble, you awake? I'm going to pull you down now." Foaly warned him, and carefully slid his commanding officer off the digging machine. Trouble felt like a ragdoll filled with sand and broken bits. He only twitched from the far off tingle of magic healing and the numbed feeling of being moved. Foaly glanced at the metal monstrosity, worried for his other friend's safety, before taking Trouble back to the shelter.

The inner workings of the machine were more finished, Holly made her way to the control room. Anger rose up in her again when she saw the massive human still sitting in the control chair. He was grinning and petting a small blue gem. Holly could only guess what it was.

"Surrender now Mud Man, your lackey is down and Wisher is out cold." Holly said, doing her best not to shoot him anyways.

"My dear, it seems you are not up to date on your 'fairy facts'." Jon said, grinning wide. "Allow me to inform you. Genies can make wishes come true, even if they are unconscious. Their link to this gem is stronger than you know."

Holly barely had time to think, her body instantly began to flee. Something terrible was about to happen, and she had to get away! The gem twinkled, then exploded into a shower of fairy sparks that consumed Jon and filled the inside of the machine. Holly was thrown out into the snow by the force of the blast. Snow melted instantly into steam around the metal monster. After a moment of loud thrashing and wailing noises, the area became deadly quite.

Holly could hear her heart racing as she got up from the snow, and moved for cover. Foaly peeked out from his shelter to what was going on. Just at that moment, the digging machine tilted to the side as something began to squirm its way out the open hatch. With a strong fast swipe of his new claws, Jon moved the steam to the side. Foaly's heart skipped a beat at what was coming into view. The human... he was now over half troll! Jon spent no time in worrying about his new form. It wasn't want he wanted, but it was close enough. With his fat now replaced with strong troll muscles, he lunged at Holly from the steam.

Two shots hit Jon in the back and upset arm causing him to stop and look. Holly also took the chance to look. Foaly had used the gun Holly had first given to him, he was amazed that he even hit the target! It wasn't where it was aiming on the mud troll, but at least it hit. Holly moved to higher ground while Foaly was being a distraction. A few more lucky shots knocked Jon back, but his new skin protected him. Holly made up her mind, she officially hated trolls now. A stray shot knocked the gem from Jon's claws, it skipped across the snow once before disappearing into the vast whiteness. Jon roared in rage! That was still an important part of his plans! He turned to where Holly was and charged.

Trouble's world was slowly coming back into focus. He could hear a lot fire and the sound of snow and rubble being tossed about. He was about to allow himself to pass back out when a hand came into his vision and grabbed him by the uniform collar. He knew that hand. Foaly quickly pulled Trouble and Wisher from the door way of the LEP building as it began to crumble. Looking to his side he could see a large monster that he couldn't recognize scaling a pile of rubble and swiping at Holly. What was going on? Something went flying, Foaly made an attempt to catch it but missed. Trouble recalled that he never was good at catching, that centaur.

Wisher woke up from the sudden move, something was calling to her. Her gem was calling to her from its snowy hiding place. Without much of a second though, she leapt from Foaly's arm and dashed off through the snow. With each leap and bound, Wisher could feel an internal clock ticking down. In a way, she knew what would happen once the clock reaches zeros but she wanted to do something good that would matter before then.

Jon swung his arms and caught Holly by her shoulder. Pain rushed through her body as the mud troll continued with his sweeping movement. In the blink of an eye she was impaled on his claws, then flung off them. She was already blacking out by the time she impacted with Foaly and fell back into the snow. The blow knocked Foaly back against the building he had put Trouble in, knocking the wind from his lungs.

Wisher could swear the world had lost all sound by the slow ticking of a clock that only she could hear. She grabbed the gem in her mouth and made a bee line for Holly. Jon tried to scoop her up as she zipped past but missed. The ticking was growing louder now. Trouble had leaned over the pile of rubble and was shooting Jon in an attempt to distract him from his fallen friends. Wisher leapt next to Holly's hand and nudged the gem into place.

"Holly, please! You must make a wish!" Wisher said, holding onto her hand so it would be closed around the small object.

At first, there was no response from the fallen captain. Jon was ignoring the fire that pelted his side and back. He raised his bloody claws to strike a finishing blow down on the them.

"Holly!" Wisher yelped as the claws sped towards them.

Time froze for Wisher. Jon's claws was just inches from impaling her two friends. The snow hung in the air like stars. Her tired body drained of its last sparks of magic as the final wish was carried out, she looked at the two inch gap between death and her friends. Just one last thing...

"I wish he was here... Holly's mind managed to form. "I wish Julius was back..."

Wisher smiled as the claws suddenly came at them. A good wish... Finally... She didn't feel the claws hit her back, nor Jon yelp in surprise that Wisher was in the way. The price for such a wish had been paid. The blast of light blinded Jon, and sparks flew from Wisher's wound and consumed herself and his arm all the way to the shoulder. The light and the terrifying shriek from the human troll hybrid woke Holly. The bright light and shower of sparks had gone as quickly as they came. A bombard of shots hit Jon, knocking him back from the fallen fairies. Out of the corner of her eye, thought she saw a familiar fairy stepping out of the snow fall. Her vision faded as a shower of fire hit Jon, knocking the troll-human back further. Somehow, she felt safe even in that horrible moment...


	9. Chapter Nine: Royal Flush

**Chapter Nine: Royal Flush**

Nothing had changed in so long. He didn't know how long he was stuck there, watching his life on repeat in fast forward. It only seemed to slow down to regular speed when he made a mistake or it was a bad memory. He could have sworn he heard a voice mocking him during each mistake shown. The voice would say things along the lines of, "Oh, you messed up here too! And there, and there, and there!" He hated the voice. It seemed a mesh of all the vocals from his past, each one taking a turn in saying a word. He was stuck watching his life from beginning to end with no stopping. A few times he had to watch from end to beginning. He was beyond bored, frustrated, upset, or really any emotion. There was no point, there was nothing he could do to change what was going on in front of him. His chance to do that ended where the memories did, that horrible large explosion. He could still feel his ribs aching, even though they really didn't "exist" anymore. He couldn't smell, taste, or feel, but he could see and hear. It seemed like it had been like this for as long as he could remember, but he knew that was a lie. The images passing by him was proof of so. He was once the person in the memories. Those where the people who cared for him, who risked their lives for him, and they were the ones he let down. That was all over now though, all in the past that he wasn't fully certain ever existed. His least favorite part was coming up, he could see it begin to slow down more than usual. He saw the explosion happen, then pause. As if someone had taken a picture of a bag of flower being popped. It reversed back to the moment he had lifted his visor. Then it did something it hadn't before, the view swung around to face the female elf standing before him. The look on her face always pained him, reminding him of just who he left behind. Holly, his female officer that even though she upset him, made him the most proud. For a moment, he wondered how she was. Was she even still alive? He had no idea how long he'd been... "dead". His life seemed to fade away, as did everything else around him. A blank stock whiteness surrounded him.

"Heh", he grunted to himself, "I guess they found were to put me..." But nothing happened.

If he was still alive, he guessed he probably would have gotten annoyed. He was sure of that. For a moment, he thought he felt ground under his feet. He looked down, but saw nothing. When looking up, he got a surprise! Someone he had never seen before, was now standing in front of him. She was a head taller than he was, and six glowing wings came from her back. She gently placed her hands on his shoulders, and smiled.

"Time to come back, Julius. They've missed you and need you now more than ever." She said.

"Who are you?" He said, surprised to hear his own voice again.

She only smiled and shook her head. There was no time for talk. Root was about to say something when he felt something beat within him. It shook his whole frame, a heartbeat. He pressed his hands to his chest, then he noticed he had a body again! A beating heart, in a place he shouldn't even exist.

The last moments of Wisher's life flashed before him quickly, as all feeling returned to him. All around him, Root suddenly felt a chill, a breeze. He took in his first breath and closed his eyes. He tightened his hand around a familiar object. Without looking, he knew it was his trusted tri-barreled, water cooled blaster. He knew where he was, what was going on, and what he needed to do.

"Ok kiddo, I understand." He growled, and stepped from the shadows of the snow fall. This Jon creature better pray, cause Commander Root is back in the game.

Jon staggered back, he had lost a large amount of blood. The female elf wasn't moving, the centaur under her was semi-awake, the male elf was missing, and Ticket was probably dead. While in a fit of rage he had lost his chance, and now something new was pelting him. This time, it hurt. Who cared for a dead human female he had once called wife? Not him. These creatures would pay with their lives for what they had done to him! Several shots hit him again, each one more painful than the last. He turned to see where the shots were coming from, but as he did one hit him directly in the face. He roared with pain, it hurt so much! He squinted through the blood gushing from his forehead to see a new elf had come from the whirling snow around them. This one seemed different, he was simply walking towards him. Something about this elf's eyes sent a pang of fear through the very core of his being. He started to charge at the elf, wanting to just get rid of those eyes! Another round of shots to the face and neck hindered his attempts to strike out. Everything had begun to hurt and his instincts were telling him to run. Run while he still could. His slowing mind took a moment to think about, but delay cost him. Something hit his back, more pain. He couldn't take it, it hurt too much. Jon collapsed to the ground, his vision blurring and turning red from blood. Through his fading eyes, he wondered. Was that elf now smiling?

Foaly couldn't believe what he was waking up to. Root had came from nowhere and brought Jon to his knees in a matter of minutes. Their old friend seemed to have no mercy for the troll human hybrid. Jon was a bloody mass in the snow by the time Root was done with him. The finishing blow though, came from Trouble. He had recovered enough to stand and fire directly at the base of Jon's head. That monster of a man would not be getting back up any time soon. Suddenly remembering what sent him flying in the first place, Foaly checked on Holly. Her arm was health and it seemed like she was just resting. After looking around, he couldn't find any signs of Wisher.

Trouble looked at Root in disbelief. Did that really just happen? Honestly? Can he have a replay of it? Jon fell, and Root was standing there with his blaster smoking as the water coolant raced to do its job. What was even more surprising, was the Root grinned slightly as Jon passed out. A real grin from a REAL Julius Root!

"COMMANDER!" He yelled and ran over to him.

The worst attack on Haven city was coming to an end. Most of central Haven had been damaged or destroyed, the council was going to flip. The LEP rushed to help those who survived from the snow. It would take the LEP several days to locate everyone. The council was too busy attending to the current issue to deal with the commander who had returned from the dead. For several days, they had peace while waiting for their wounds to heal and for Holly to recover.

Holly heard voices she recognized. Her body had slight pains, but nothing a good shot of magic wouldn't fix. She knew she was back at her apartment, only her place smelled this nice. What others were doing there, she didn't know.

"Straight Flush, you suck at this." Holly knew that was Mulch. Sounded like they were playing cards in her head.

"I quite, this game is too simple for me." She knew that would be Foaly, he had survived too.

"You're no fun pony boy" Mulch again. "Hey, want to play?"

"No thanks, my coffee says no too." Trouble, he was ok. She was so busy targeting Jon she forgot to check on him again.

"And how about my troll-mud man kicking buddy?" Mulch said again, in probably his most teasing voice ever. "You've got something in common with Butler now."

"Diggums, I swear, if you don't get those cards out of my face, Short will have a large mess to clean up."

Holly took a moment to let her mind work over what she just heard. It couldn't be, it just couldn't. Then again.. today was already filled with bizarre things. It could just be possible. She had to wake up and see, or else she'd never forgive herself. It took a moment for the room to focus once she had her eyes open, and she sat up gingerly. The boys were sitting around her kitchen table, a pile of opened drinks and snacks cluttered the center of the table while cards were falling over the edges. Root had Mulch by his shirt collar with a fist ready. Foaly was helping himself to some carrot flavored snacks from the center of the table while Trouble was guarding his drink from the soon to be fight. They all froze when they saw Holly sitting up and watching them. If rank was still important in her mind, it was gone now.

"Julius!" She cried while getting up and hugged him tightly. Burying her face in his shoulder.

Root grunted in surprised, he had not expected her to react like that. In hindsight, he probably should have expected it. To everyone else's surprise in the room, he hugged her back. If he had learned anything from watching his life go past countless times, it was that he needed to show more affection towards those who cared for him. Mind you, he wouldn't be going all hugs and cuddles to the others.

Life slowly began to return to normal for the group. Well, as normal as it could with Haven being a wreck as it was. The council was suspicious of Root's sudden return at just the right time, but they needed the extra help with the crisis. He was given the rank of Second Commander, since Trouble still held his rank for dealing with the situation as he did. They were ordered to keep his method of return to themselves till things calmed down enough they could discuss it. To them, there was never such a creature so powerful that it could bring the dead back to life. Also with no body to examine, this new species may as well had been made out of air. With Root's home and belongings auctioned away, he was forced to live in an apartment building that wasn't far from Foaly's home. Morning calls from the genius centaur were not a rare thing for the commander, although he would have liked them to be. Foaly had been keeping Artemis up to date on what happened and how the repairs were going. Artemis in return was helping the LEP gather information on Jon. He knew a bit too much, but where he got the information they couldn't find out. Chop was mind whipped and released back on the surface.

"Wow, sorry I missed all the fun this time." Artemis said, almost sound truly disappointed he was not included on the adventure.

"On the bright side, we got Julius back. Although the medical staff is examining him from head to foot." Foaly chuckled. "It's good to know he hasn't lost that temper of his. Work would be boring again if he did."

"I'm both surprised and glad he's back. Perhaps I should have went after genies instead of fairies. Speaking of which, how is she?" Artemis asked.

"She disappeared the day of the attack. Even with most of the snow cleaned up, we can't find any trace. It's almost like she never existed..." the centaur said, his mind going back to someone else who disappeared without a trace.

Artemis noticed Foaly's slight mood change, but decided not to ask. The centaur often talked about what bothered him when he wanted to, no reason to pry. The continued the talk about researching Jon to get off the topic.

"Jon Algerbech, forty-one years of age, Caucasian male. He made a living as a photographer since he was twenty-two. One of those could have been well known names, but was over looked kind of people." Artemis said, giving Foaly the short version of his notes. "Got married at the age of twenty-five to a Marie Sonnet. She died only four years after their marriage, due to some unknown disease. The local news paper says that her husband took any jobs he could to help pay for the hospital bills, but in the end the doctors ran out of possibilities and time. Marie passed away while her husband was on one of the jobs, a wildlife preserve wanting to show off their species."

"So then this guy heard from somewhere that genes were real and somehow caught one?" Foaly speculated.

"That part I can't find out. No one from the local area remembers when he moved out to the middle of nowhere with his new pet. The locals said that they could see him from time to time after her death, but then he started to take on jobs that had long travel times and was never home. Suddenly one day a few months ago, he moved." Artemis reported. "He probably picked up Wisher on one of those trips, but there were no records from any of his fight tickets that he had anything in the cargo hold. Just his camera bag."

The facts continued to pile up, but clues of how this human got access to fairy knowledge were going cold. As they talked, Foaly had a short video clip from the attack replaying on a side monitor. Holly and Foaly are down, the monster that was Jon was moving towards them. Wisher runs over to them, and as Jon strikes, there is a bright light, then she and Jon's arm are gone. The plaza's camera was half covered in ice, but there was no denying it. She was there, then just... gone.

Holly was sitting at her kitchen table, tackling a large pile of paper work from LEP. Since most of the building had been crushed, almost everyone was forced to either work at home or help clear away rubble. Since her back hurt still, she chose the first option. She was lucky that she got to choose the first option, many others were forced to help clean up since there was such a large mess. They had dismantled the digging machine and had a team of dwarfs repair the hole, that was the first thing that was done. Haven was locked down for a day, as the officers took on the grueling takes of collecting the casualties. The city would be even less crowded now, finding the bright side in that was a little difficult for her. The group had promised to play cards again once the whole mess had been cleaned up, she was looking forwards to that.


	10. Chapter Ten: A New Game Begins

**Chapter Ten: A New Game Begins**

"Arty, are you sure about this?" Artemis' mother asked as she watched her son finish packing up his things.

"I'm quite sure about this mother, I'll be fine." Artemis said as he taped the boxes shut. He had a feeling it would be coming down to this in the end, and now felt like the time to do so.

Mrs. Fowl couldn't believe it was already to that point. Her little Arty was moving out all on his own into the big world. She agreed that the house was much more active then he was used to, and now that he was pursuing his own life he'd need to focus more. He was like his father, there was nothing she could really say that would stop him at this point.

"Are you sure you'll be okay? I mean, moving away from the manor." She asked him.

"Mother, I will be fine. You have my new addresses and phone number, and I'll be moving closer to my friends. They'll help keep an eye on me." Artemis said, knowing she would know whom he was speaking of.

With all his possession packed and loaded into the car, he said good bye to his family one last time. Butler was going to stay with him as his body guard for as long as Artemis would permit, but he was getting on in years. He would be returning to the manor to help look after the younger siblings. They got into the car and started their journey to Artemis's new home.

"Sir, are you sure about this?" Butler asked.

"I'm positive." Artemis said, watching the landscape going past as they were driving. The drive would take several hours. Dusk was falling as they rounded a corner, his new home would be on a hill as well. Artemis liked having the high ground. Something shined in the tall grass along the road as they drove past. Something oddly familiar. "Butler, stop! Here, stop!" The brakes screeched as the car rocked to a halt.

Haven City

Root plashed cold water from his apartment's sink onto his face. It had been a long day of healing warlocks and grump ex-superiors. Foaly didn't stop jabbering at him till he closed the door on his face after grumpily saying good bye. He knew the centaur wouldn't take it personally, since it wasn't the first time and he would be back at his door in the morning. LEP falling apart, then coming back together again. Holly and Artemis swapping eyes. A new species lost and then found and then lost again. Weather in Haven. He allowed himself to fall back onto his bed with a quite grunt. He hadn't done that since he was... well, he can't remember ever doing that. So much had passed since he was gone, it was as if he was in another world completely. For a moment, he wondered how things would have happened if he had not been killed. Holly would never had been forced to run and start all over again. LEP would have stuck together, so much wouldn't have happened. Root felt an odd pain in his chest and sat up.

The small computer on his table began to beep annoyingly. As a present from Foaly, he wouldn't put it past the annoying centaur to have set the most annoying beeping sound in the underworld as his new message alarm. He got up and started to make his way towards the machine. Not sure if he wanted to check the message, or simply smash it and get some rest. Later he was glad he decided to read the message.

Artemis's Home

A two story modern styled home, Artemis had it remolded to his liking. Butler was slightly impressed by his young masters new home, but then again, it was Artemis. It couldn't have been any normal home. Their guests had arrived by the time they were done unpacking. Holly came into view standing outside the doorway, sitting on the stained chestnut railings. The common night time light fog hid their transport, but butler could sense there was more of them.

"Welcome to my new home." Artemis said to Holly as she stood up. "You and your friends are welcome inside. I've got a surprise for you."

Trouble came into view on cue for the word "surprise". Holly followed Artemis and Trouble into the home. Butler stood outside waiting for Foaly to gallop his way over from locking down their shuttle. Once they were all inside and seated, Artemis reached into his bag and pulled out a small box.

"You brought us here to see an old paperclip box?" Trouble asked, sounding frustrated.

"Not the box, but what is inside it." Artemis said, grinning as he took out a small gem stone. It took the group a moment before they noticed what was so significant about the gem.

"That was Wishers' gem stone!" Holly said. "But where is Wisher?"

Artemis walked over and handed Holly the gem. "Take a look."

The group crowded together as Holly held the gem up to the light. Directly in the center they saw a small, curled up and sleeping, Wisher. Holly stared at the gem, feeling slightly confused.

"She must have used all her magic, and then returned to the one place that was safest for her. Inside her gem." Artemis suggested.

"But then how did she get all the way from Haven, to here?" Trouble chimed in.

No one really had an answer. Teleportation came to mind, but Wisher never showed that ability in the time they knew her. Genies were not really as well known as they should have been. The group decided it was best to keep this to themselves. With everyone thinking the genie was gone, it was probably for the best. At least, till things quieted down in Haven. Holly held the small gem, grateful she did not lose another friend.

Haven's Criminal Asylum

Turnball sat quietly in his padded cell. He must be mad. Julius paid him a visit. Mad, he must be. He could still see the colors of the cell the LEP boys had painted just for him. What was up, what was down. Wait, someone was at the door. Or was that a sink? Oh, his mind hurt now. Someone walked into his cell, closing the door behind her. She had four hoofs, how interesting. She looked pretty. Where had he seen her before. Oh no, she held a needle! Turnball tried to utter a word, something, anything. A warning, a scream, help? Nothing.

"P-Pancakes!" He muttered gaspingly.

"Hush, this won't hurt. I'll be needing you..." The female said and sedated Turnball. She then yelled to the guard. "He's dead! Someone has killed Turnball Root!"

They came like flies to her trap. The LEP guards got the same treatment and were down before they could ask what was wrong. The female lifted Turnball onto her back and moved towards the doorway. Her mind had been so much clearer in the past few months, and her leader had given her the most rewarding of tasks. This last one, stealing the brother of their old enemy, was the finishing touches to their plans. With a shimmer of light, she was outside of the asylum and in the streets of Haven. People moved around her as if she didn't even exist. Walking around her as one would subconsciously walk around a mailbox to not hit it. All according to play. Caballine looked up at the skin with a smirk. Who would win this round? Foaly and his group of fairies, or herself and her new friends. The stakes were now much higher than ever before, and her opponents had no idea yet. In an instant, she and Turnball were gone. Let the games begin.


	11. Chapter Eleven: Before Time

**Chapter Eleven: Before Time**

**Before the story...**

Foaly was over joyed with his night environment working so smoothly. He had a few complaints, but those eventually faded away when he added holographic stars and a moon. He was in his own little world now, designing and fixing his new project. Caballine didn't mind his long hours at work before. He usually spent a lot of time working on projects. It wasn't till Foaly invited Holly to join him that she slowly began to mind. She understood that neither of them could sleep right, but it still bugged her. She kept trying to tell herself they are just old friends, spending time together. After all, they had lost three years. Soon Foaly had finished slight temperature changes, so day was warmer then night. He would come home exhausted and just fall over. She knew he was working for the benefit of the people... so why was she getting so upset?

Caballine went out for a stole one night to clear her mind, as she usually did when Foaly was at work so late. Haven was quiet due to the fact most people were sound asleep. She stopped outside a closed restaurant and sat on the bench near the door. Why was she so upset?

"Hello deary, you shouldn't be out so late." Said a voice to her right.

She looked and saw an unrecognizable face. Female, pixie, but no name seemed to match. She walked over and sat next to Caballine.

"Such a lonely night, to be all the way out here. You should be home." They continued.

"I've got a bit of time, and I like it out here." She replied quietly.

"Oh, but you are upset." Said the voice, suddenly sounding much more appealing. It had a new pitch to it, one Caballine didn't think she could ever ignore.

"I am a bit upset, Foaly is always at work with Holly these days..." She began.

"Tell him to quit then, the humans won't catch up. And he needs more hours at home with you." said the wonderful voice. "Hurry, before Holly steals him away from you."

"H...Holly would never! We're good friends." She said, but it felt difficult not to believe the voice.

"Oh, but she is. Holly is trying to steal Foaly away from you." Caballine's mind went numb and just seemed to focus on the lovely voice's words. "Tell Foaly to quit, and don't back down. If worse comes to worse, return here. I will care for you."

"Yes... I'll tell Foaly to quit. Enough is enough." She said and stood. "Thank you."

The pixie sat on the bench and petted the creases from her dress. A move that even sane Opal would be proud of, if she was Opal. That night Caballine argued with Foaly to leave LEP and come home. He was just being used by them. He argued that they needed him, coming home would be too selfish. The argument hit it's peek and Caballine left. Foaly couldn't believe it. She never showed anything like this before... What was going on? Heart break hit him before his mind could work out an answer. He tried to find Caballine the next day, but he only got one witness saying she went to sit outside a restaurant and then just disappeared.

"I'll take care of you, my dear." Said the wonderful voice as it led Caballine towards a darkened room. "I promise you, you'll feel better than ever before."

The heavy door closed behind them. Caballine didn't mind. The lovely voiced pixie was with her. Why would she mind? How could she ever not follow such a wonderful thing...


End file.
